Best Ideas In The World

I sang on stage with Jimmy Barnes

Another adolescent fantasy realized. Again, growing up in Australia, we’d get to see bands like AC/DC, Midnight Oil and INXS – sometimes all on the same bill. Headlining right alongside these now internationally renowned acts was a brilliant band that at times was as good or better than all of them – Cold Chisel.
Belting out all the classic Cold Chisel hits as lead singer and then continuing on with his own hyper-successful solo career was the one and only Jimmy Barnes.
On Stage with Jimmy Barnes and his Band
And none other than Jimmy Barnes came out to San Francisco recently, and though he is used to playing to stadiums filled with tens of thousands, for some unknown reason actually agreed to play before 400 hundred shocked and screaming expats at the Australian American Chamber of Commerce annual Australia Day Ball. I stood there most of the performance wondering should I or shouldn’t I? How could I pass up this chance to live out a fantasy from those heady late-teenage days? As Jimmy and his band were nearing the end of their set, I took that chance, and made my way around to the side of the Stage.

As one song finished, and another was about to begin, I stepped on stage and up to a microphone – the song was Goodbye Astrid, and I knew it word for word. Barnsey was a complete gentleman about it, and actually took my camera from me and took some footage of me right there on stage with him.

As the last notes faded I bowed and left, stage right. Jimmy kindly acknowledged me with a nod, and here I am to write about it. What’s the ‘idea’ to come out of it? Why write about it on a blog called ‘best ideas in the world’? It could be something simple like seize the day, or relive your youth if you’re ever given even half a chance, but the real answer is the same one I gave myself while out in the audience that evening – why not?